Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Purpose matters

This
weekend I was visiting my father who is spending four weeks in a little village
in the Swiss mountains for recovery. When I entered the hotel I was pleased with
the warmth of the receptionist. She gave me the feeling that I was really
welcome and that she cares for me. It was not the usual customer orientation we
experience in many hotels from employees who are trained to be customer
oriented. It was an encounter between human beings. During the entire stay in
this hotel I met various people who love their work because they like caring
for others. The hotel
belongs to a foundation, which aims at providing services to human beings in
all phases of life. Besides hotels they are engaged in child and elderly care. In doing
business we often have a weak connection to why we are doing this work.
Rendering a good service is much easier when we know why we are doing it and
what we stand for when providing these services. This
hotel stands for doing good to people. Whether we base this on Christian values
or on a humanistic commitment in a philosophical sense does not matter that
much. What matters is that we know with which purpose we are serving whom.
Customer orientation in this perspective is not a mere technical term but a
humanistic commitment in the broader sense. Sybille Sachs